Since graduate school, my research interest has consistently focused on dental anxiety. In Japan, I developed a Japanese version of questionnaire to measure dental anxiety and conducted epidemiological studies of dental anxiety. I have also found that sensory sensitivity to sound and light is associated with dental anxiety. Currently, using data from a Finnish birth cohort, I am investigating genetic and environmental factors that contribute to the development of dental anxiety in children and the impact of dental anxiety on cardiovascular disorders and diabetes mellitus.